Choosing the Future
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: September 1, 2014
Publisher Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Publication: Freethought Newswire
Original Link: https://secular.org/2024/11/choosing-the-future/
Publication Date: November 4, 2024
Organization: Secular Coalition for America
Organization Description: The Secular Coalition for America advocates for religious freedom, as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and works to defend the equal rights of nonreligious Americans. Representing 20 national secular organizations, hundreds of local secular communities, and working with our allies in the faith community, we combine the power of grassroots activism with professional lobbying to make an impact on the laws and policies that govern separation of religion and government — or the improper encroachment of either on the other.
“To govern is to choose.”
This was President John Kennedy’s succinct description of his job and the innumerable decisions about what government programs to fund, whether to go to war, who should benefit from tax cuts, and every other area touched by the federal government. But before a president gets to make these choices, we choose whom we want making them, whom we want running the government.
For the third election in a row there is a stark difference between candidates. From our perspective at SCA, the question is who would better support the rights of nonreligious Americans? Is it the one who goes to church and prays regularly or the one who never goes, knows next to nothing about religion, and sells Bibles for $60? Ironically it’s the one who goes to church and prays regularly. (As it has been with President Biden.)
Here are a few points to consider: Harris says people do not have to abandon their faith to agree that decisions on abortion should not be controlled by the government. She also says doctors and healthcare personnel should not be able to opt out of providing reproductive care because of their religious beliefs. Harris emphasizes the altruistic aspects of her faith, helping those in need.
Trump plans to establish a task force to fight anti-Christian bias. He also wants to allow preachers to endorse candidates and to make it possible for any family to use vouchers to send their kids to religious schools. He recently told Christian pastors they would have enhanced access: “It will be directly into the Oval Office — and me.” Also, “We have to save religion in this country.”
During Trump’s term he signed executive orders that made it easier for faith-based organizations to receive federal funding and to allow them to discriminate in whom they hire based on religion. During the Biden-Harris term those regulations have been reversed.
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“We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press—in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality, which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess.”
– Adolf Hitler, 1933.
We hadn’t found the right time to share that quote until the reports last week that while in the White House Trump said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” meaning absolutely loyal. (Never mind that he didn’t know some of the generals tried to assassinate Hitler.) Hitler’s appeal to Christian nationalism in 1933 shows what can happen when statements like his find a receptive audience among the Christian population. That statement seems right at home on Trump’s side of the current presidential campaign.
The polls show that the race is a coin flip and therefore some 80 million people are going to vote for Trump. His admiration for dictators and demand for absolute loyalty among subordinates should be flashing red warning signs. He hired Christian nationalists to help run the government last time and he will certainly do so again.
As a nonprofit, the Secular Coalition for America cannot endorse a particular candidate. Instead, we simply encourage everyone to vote for the country.
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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
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